Ryan Newman Springfield Review

Springfield, IL - Ryan Newman battled back from tough luck earlier in the day to finish the "Corona Extra Tony Bettenhausen 100" in 11th place at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Saturday. Ryan maintains 1st place in the USAC Coors Light Silver Bullet Series points standings with six events remaining on the schedule.

"There are marbles and sand in the upper groove. Once you get in it, you aren't able to get out. I went in a little too hard and bounced off the wall in turn 3. I flipped the car a few times then radioed back to the guys to get the back-up out," Newman explains. After preparing the back-up for qualifying, Ryan qualified the untried machine 25th, but went on to finish 4th in the "last-chance" race.

Working his way up through the field, starting 24th, Newman managed to bring the car up to his 11th finishing position. "We retained the points lead and that's critical. Moving from 24th to 11th in a back-up was a pretty challenging feat," Newman said.

Newman returns to the USAC Silver Bullet Silver Crown Series on September 6th at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds for the "DuQuoin Century."

Ryan Newman began racing quarter midgets at the incredibly young age of 4 1/2 years. With over 200 quarter midget victories and two Quarter Midget National Championships to his credit, Newman is a member of the Quarter Midget Hall of Fame.

Since graduating to midgets, Newman has garnered Rookie of the Year awards on the AAMS, USAC National Midget and USAC Silver Crown series, as well as the 1993 AAMS National Championship.

Away from the track, Ryan is an interdisciplinary engineering student at Purdue University, where he is on track to graduate in May 2000. Classes started for the fall term on August 23rd.